IT'S ON YOU

For many of us, this election provides final, conclusive evidence our political system is broken. A political system that declares Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the two strongest candidates for leader of the free world is an unbelievable wake-up call. A wake-up call that clearly emphasizes we are responsible for our government, and that we must get off the sidelines, off our knee, and into the game. A call that says we must get involved if we want our government to effectively address: 1). Cybersecurity, 2). Radical Terrorism, 3). Race Relations, 4). $20+ Trillion National Debt, 5). Tax Policy, 6) Business Regulation & Economic Opportunity, 7) Education, 8) Health Care, 9) Immigration, and 10) Environmental and Global Warming Issues?

Continuing to vote, tell yourself you did your duty, and hope your representatives alone will solve these issues is textbook insanity. Earlier this year Warren Buffett said the likelihood is approaching certainty there will be mass U.S. destruction from a CNBC attack (Cyber, Nuclear, Biologic, or Chemical) in the future, and if he knew what to do, he would put all his money towards a 5% chance of stopping this attack. After a GAO investigation, the U.S. Secretary of Education said “six decades after Brown v. Board, we have failed to close the opportunity and achievement gaps for our African-American and Latino students at every level of education”. Dallas Police Chief David Brown said we’re asking cops to do too much in this country … every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve … I just ask for other parts of our democracy along with the free press to help us … and not put that burden all on law enforcement. And with deafening silence from your political representatives, during the past eight years they doubled our debt from $10 Trillion to $20 Trillion. Have you held anyone accountable for these issues – do your political representatives know if they should care, or if you should care? Will this debt destroy your children’s future – or will that take $30 Trillion?

Our problems are not going to get easier, they are moving faster and the threats are getting stronger. Our leaders can’t see or understand all of our complex ‘problems’. They hear and see mostly through weak filtered channels and get recommendations for ‘fixes’ through filtered channels. But diffused, delayed, and doctored information does not work in today’s rapidly changing and complex big-data world.

The silver lining in this election is that we very clearly see our political leaders are frail humans, with imperfect lives who should derive their power only from the consent of the people. The bad news is - we have no effective process to build and express informed consent of the people in a way that is useful for our political representatives.

To fix our broken government, we all must start fighting hard hitting battles of ideas inside the ropes of our democracy. We must more actively engage in difficult conversations, talk openly about our problems, goals, and potential solutions – and wrestle with ways to compromise and build consensus recommendations.

Will you get off the sidelines and into the game? Will you help build a process to remove the filters on information given to your representatives? Will you admit that you are responsible for your government and your government needs you? Will you jump in the ring and start sharing your views on key community issues – education, policing, economic opportunity? Not in a traditional social media way – but using a rewarding, civil approach that has the potential to knock our democracy back into shape. Your children’s future is on You – will you get in the game and start collaborating to create the greatest conversations (and results) of all time at www.Bee.vote?